Thursday, February 01, 2007

She had a dog named "Shit" that she brought to work into the newsroom of The New York Times, recalls Adam Clymer, a retired Timesman, who said she was miffed when Times copy editors changed her obit on Elvis to conform to the Times style of calling males "Mr." on second reference.

She used her various journalism award plaques as trivets, says Billy Porterfield whom she once slugged in the mouth after mistakenly thinking he pinched her on the ass (the culprit was a Harlem Globetrotter.)

Mark Russell, who spoke at the Wichita (KS) Chamber of Commerce the year after Ivins spoke to the group, had a tough act to follow. Russell kept hearing people mutter about the previous year's speaker, but couldn't get any of the locals to tell him what on earth his predecessor said that so scandalized the town until finally a fellow pulled him into the hall and confessed what she said.

The guy lowered his voice and, looking over his shoulder, said, “Well, when she spoke at the banquet, she said that the three most overrated things in America are Mack trucks, teenage pussy, and the FBI.”

"In my last dinner with her, Molly turned to me and said out of the side of her mouth: “This has been a hell of a ride.” She meant the months of trying to stay atop the cancer bucking within her, but it could also sum up her 62 years in this life." -- Jim Hightower

Somewhere, Texas: Many years ago I was serving in the Texas Lege and Molly was covering it. She wrote of the legislators debating one particularly backward issue something like "legislators lined up at the back mic to speak looked like one of those illustrations of evolution from ape to man." The next day several of us who had participated in the debate lined up in front of Molly, with the legislator in the rear stooped over with knuckles dragging the carpet and those in front of him standing progressively more upright. Molly thought is was a scream and gave the "ape" legislator a huge bear-hug.

Paul K. Harral: Typical of Molly. She didn't take herself too seriously. She was just having fun and doing what she thought she ought to do.